Category: Cartoons

The portal opened five feet from his left, and Wolverine watched the lanky, muscled frame of his former teammate and friend step out onto the snowy grounds of the Jean Gray School for Gifted Students. Cyclops looked grim as usual, and travelled with a dusty satchel. Wolverine couldn’t remember the last time he had seen Scott Summers smile.

“I’m here, Logan.” Cyclops said, looking around for traps. “What is it you needed? Make it quick, I’m a wanted man.”

Wolverine uncrossed his arms and stepped forward. “I’ve been one too, Cyke, many times. After awhile, being out in the cold gets to ya’.” Scott just nodded, and so Wolverine continued. “Remember that first Christmas back at the Mansion with Chucky, Kitty, Peter and Kurt? We all laughed watchin’ Storm give the Professor Snow-Fros?”

“That was a long time ago,” Cyclops said, and instantly struggled with a thought. How long ago was that? Sometimes it feels like it was Thirty years ago, but it may have been only Five.

“If there’s one thing you learn while being an X-Man, it’s that time can always be changed.” Wolverine half smiled, and reached behind a nearby statue. He pulled out a box, brightly wrapped in red and green candy cane printed paper.

It was an X-Mas present from one X-Man to an Ex-X-Man.

Cyclops opened the box with hesitant hands. Years of battle hardened ambushes had trained him to be wary of gifts. What lay inside the present surprised him more than any bomb, alien parasite or severed head of a beloved comrade.

Inside the box was a case of custom made, ruby quartz contact lenses. Enough to last an entire year.

“Merry X-Mas, Slim.” growled Wolverine. “Hank helped with the design. I wonder why we’ve never thought of this before.”

“Logan,” choked Scott, “It’s-. I don’t know what to say.” Embarrassed, he turned and reached into his travel bag, taking out a brightly wrapped box of his own. Wolverine was stunned. He did not expect this…because this story takes place now. If this was the 80’s or 90’s, they would have said Wolverine could pre-smell the present with his heightened senses, but nobody remembers that power set anymore.

“I had hoped your message was sincere, so I came prepared. Thanks for forgiving me for killing Professor X. Again.” Cyclops laughed.

“Ah, heck, Slim. Who hasn’t killed that bald S.O.B. once or twice. Now what have we here,” Wolverine asked, opening the gift. He, too, was surprised because again- no heightened sense of smell.

Inside was an Adamantium claw sharpener with a jar of Adamantium claw polish. Wolverine smiled. Cyclops did the same. Somewhere a jolly, fat elf was Ho-Hoed. They both started to laugh.

“You know, Scott, this gift is the most thoughtful thing anyone’s ever given me,” Wolvie sighed, “And as useless as a Metrocard for Nightcrawler. You see-” and what followed was a sickening SHLACK sound, as the bloody stumps of bones broke through Wolverine’s hands. “I sold my Adamantium claws and skeleton to a scrap dealer in order to afford the Ruby Quartz Contacts.”

Tears started to swell in Scott Summers’ eyes, as he broke into a silly grin. “Of course. That seems like our luck, Logan, because you see-” He paused. Red streaks started to roll down his cheeks. Tears of blood were flowing fast now, as Cyclops removed his visor, revealing the ruined cavities of his former weapons. “I sold my eyes to a mutant organ harvester in order to afford the Adamantium claw sharpener.”

They laughed, cried, hugged and bled all over each other there in the snow, both laughing at the magic of Christmas. They soon both passed out from blood loss and died of exposure.

Another day, another gift idea list! In the last couple of years Adventure Time has become one of those trail blazing pop culture phenomenons that just doesn’t seem to have a foreseeable end to its popularity. That being said, when your little one comes to you this holiday season and says “Mom, it would be totally Algebraic if you got me a Lumpy Space Princess this Christmas!” it is still understandable for you to respond with a blank expression, slacked jawed and wide eyed. Don’t worry your kids are not on drugs, this is really something that they are interested in. Ok, your kids may be on drugs but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make them happy this holiday.

Lumpy Space Princess Pull String Plush with Sound – Let’s start with that Lumpy Space Princess we we’re just talking about. Let’s call her LSP for short. Pull the string on the back of this 12 inch plush and hear her say some of her most popular catch phrases like “Drama Bomb” and “Oh My Glob!”

Fold Up Finn Stereo Headphones – Rock out with your… wiggly arms out? These sweet fold up headphones have Finn’s image on each ear piece! Also comes in Jake, LSP, and Lady Rainicorn! See, you thought LSP was weird.

Marceline Comic Pack – Marceline is one butt kicking, axe grinding, rocker of a Vampire Queen. Get the fist issue of her own comic mini series and a 12 inch plush representation of her in this self contained gift box with carry handle. Perfect for the little Scream Queen in your life.

Finn Head Belt Buckle – Don’t get caught with your pants down this Christmas when your giftee asks for a sweet new belt buckle. Lucky for you this Finn Head belt buckle is readily available for you to present as a present.

Fionna and Cake Mad Libs – Remember Mad Libs? Who doesn’t? People who don’t know what fun truly is, that’s who. You’ll be dropping nouns and adjectives till the sun comes up when you give this Fionna and Cake (Finn and Jake’s female counter parts) Mad Libs to your Adventure Time obsessed buds.

Adventure Time Memory Challenge – Here is a perfect way to get to know the ins and outs of the Adventure Time universe with your gift recipient. This edition of the classic game of Memory replaces the classic images of apples and worms with the Adventure Time Crew! After a few rounds you’ll never foolishly get The Lich and the Ice King mixed up again!

Oh no! A huge shipment just showed up! I’m gonna have to cut this list a little shorter than hoped to process all this new Adventure Time stuff we got in… looks like this Adventure Time gift list might just have a part 2 in the future.

Meet the voices behind ADVENTURE TIME at our signing for the most dangerous book in history!!!

Join us Thursday October 10th from 6-8pm for an all ages event featuring guests and giveaways from one of the biggest animation franchises on planet Earth! Appearing here at FP that night will be Martin Olson (AKA The Lord of Evil, and author of the Adventure Time Encyclopaedia), Olivia Olson (the voice of Marceline), Jessica Dicicco (Flame Princess), and AT illustrators Celeste Moreno and Mahendra Singh.

Bring your Adventure Time stuff down to get signed… pick up some great swag and/or the best-selling Encyclopaedia here… come by Forbidden Planet 10/10/13 and meet the stars of Adventure Time!

Special thanks and big ups to the folks at Abrams and Cartoon Network!

UPDATE 10/2/13: The fine folks at Cartoon Network are providing TONS of neat-o goodies for the festivities!

This jam-packed Adventure Time GIFT BASKET just arrived, and will be raffled off to all attendees who buy any Adventure Time books or merchandise from us the on the night of the event! ONE WINNER is gonna walk away with A LOT of FREE swag, including:

Summer is back, and if it’s not personal this time, I’d be shocked. I’m spare you the exact details of sweat I’ve produced so far this weekend, but just know that it’s been A LOT.

CON NAME DROPPING TIME! I’m Heroescon bound in a few days! I’m super excited to return to Heroes, as it’s probably the BEST 100% comics-focused con in the country. Expect a report next week, full of the usual cosplay, panel, & show floor recaps. This year’s goal is to touch Jason Aaron’s beard, which I imagine will work out fine for me.

So let’s start the look at new toys this week with some Figuarts. I know this is usually Loran’s turf, but lord knows I love me some Dragon Ball. This long running sub-line continues to grow, with some older figures getting re-released (Super Sayian Son Goku and Vegeta, complete with his now internet-meme-famous scouter), and some new ones joining the mix. Legit new ones, not just variants of pre-existing characters.

Perfect Cell, arguably my favorite DBZ villain, is finally out in Figuarts form and he is awesome. Bandai continues to capture the look of these characters perfectly, as Cell looks like he just stepped out of the manga/anime. And it being a Figuarts, there’s no shortage of articulation, which means we finally have a Cell figure with poseable wings. Aside from that, you get also get the usual collection of accessories-variant hands, faces, and a Kamehameha effect accessories for a variety of neat poses. The DBZ Figuarts usually go for a little over $50 a pop, and well worth it given the quality of the final product.

It’s amazing to see that Adventure Time is approaching “Batman” levels of merchandise of presence of on our shelves. I guess having a hit cartoon show and comic will do that for a brand. And it’s nice to see some sort of synergy between the two. The Marceline comic park packages a plush of the Vampire Queen with the first issue of the recently collected “Marceline and the Scream Queen” mini series, which serves as a nice primer for fans wanting to jump into the comics world. The combination pack will set you back about $17, where as the collected trade runs for about $20. In addition to that, there’s a bunch of AT figurine 2-packs in stock, as well as a pair of 4 packs. Worth noting is that one of those 4-packs is based on the super-popular “Fiona and Cake” episodes, and that will fly off of the shelves real quick.

It almost kills that faux-radical/hardcore gamer in me to close this article out by mentioning we have Angry Bird Star Wars plushies in stock, but I’m soon reminded that I have no less than 4 different versions of the game on my phone. So yeah, hypocrite much? But yes, we have several 5″ plush birds & pigs dressed as several Star Wars characters in stock, retailing for about $15 a pop. You get to choose from Luke, Leia, Han, Chewbacca (Principal Skinner’s favorite!), a Storm Trooper and of course Darth Vader…in pig form. And now that I’ve properly pimped them out, allow me to go shower. Not that I consider myself dirty to trying to sell you on those plushies, more so because again, super hot out.

REAL TALK (note how real that is with the use of capitalization, caps-lock AND italics): Forbidden Planet NYC tends to get a lot of stuff in on a weekly basis. Some of this stuff isn’t even Batman-related. And some of it sells out before I take notice. Or I don’t notice it at all, as I usually just beeline to the new comics upon entering the store.

Case in point: Maybe you wanted a statue that wasn’t an anime take on a character you like. Maybe you wanted it to be just a head instead. A head that could double as pen cup as well. GOOD NEWS, WE HAVE THAT VAGUELY SPECIFIC REQUEST COVERED! Marvel and Gentle Giant have teamed up to make a series of desk accessories and have started with everyone’s favorite overexposed Merc-with-a-Mouth, Deadpool! The Deadpool Pen cup will definitely result in a trip to H.R., but will be totally worth it! IT LOOKS GREAT! IT, UM, HOLDS STUFF! YOU CAN USE THE NINJA STARS EMBEDDED IN HIS HEAD AS ERASERS ( No I’m serious, you can). AND THE ARROW IS A FLETCHING CAP TO MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOUR PEN/PENCIL IS AN ARROW, HOW CRAZY IS THAT??! It retails for about $106, which for a polystone statue/conversation starters/co-worker keeper-awayer is well worth it.

Okay so maybe you don’t want a Deadpool pen cup because you’re crazy or something. But let’s say you do want to throw your money at something Marvel related that’s not a comic and still totally Canadian related, but not Deadpool or Wolverine. WHAT IS UP WITH YOUR WEIRD REQUESTS? Questionable tastes aside, Marvel and Art Asylum/Diamond Select has released 2 different Alpha Flight Minimate sets! Set 1 includes Guardian (dead!), Marrina (dead!), Puck (X-Force-d) and Northstar (happily married X-man). And set 3 includes Aurora (Alive), Shaman (dead!), Snowbird (Alive?…) and Sasquatch (????). Each sets retails for about $20 and is definitely the only time you’ll be able to buy a full Alpha Flight roster in plastic anytime soon.

And maybe you’re a jerk/tired of my crappy jokes and you’re trying to drive me insane by forcing me to talk about Batman toys again. Congrads, Square-Enix has you covered, because apparently Batman is their plastic Final Fantasy. The first line of their Dark Knight Trilogy Play Art Kai Black (:: takes a breath::) is out and it’s a doozey of a line up. There’s the DKT Batman, because yo, how are you not going to start off a new Batman toy line without the Bat, and Bane, because ::: mumbles something in a terrible Bane impersonation :::. And we all know the drill by now; top of the line sculpts, solid multiple points of articulation, variant hands, etc. In terms of specific accessories, Batman comes with a selection of militarized (THANKS NOLAN) toys and Bane comes with a broken Bat-cowl, WHICH YOU BETTER NOT THINK GIVES YOU POWER ( ::: high fives self :::) ! These suckers go for $75 a pop, and you’ll want them now before the Catwoman and Joker figures drop in a few months.

Oh, what’s that? You just wanted something Adventure Time related? Cool, the latest wave of Pop Vinyl figures is Adventure Time themed. At $12 a pop you can choose from Finn, Jake, Lumpy Space Princess, Marceline or the Ice King. I would say their “Mathematical” or some such, but I pretty much blew my reference wad on Batman.

It’s March, which means it’s no longer February. This is the basic concept of months and calendars people, what’s so hard to understand about it?

It also being March means there are 2 video games I”m excited for dropping this month (“Bioshock Infinite” and “Tomb Raider”) as well as the final Mass Effect 3 DLC, which drops this Tuesday. Serving as an unofficial tie-in to this event is the release of 2 new Mass Effect 3 Play Art Kai figures- the female default version of Commander Shepard, and female alien companion Tali’Xorah nar Rayya (yes, I had to Google the proper spelling of that name.). This marks the first all-female release for Kai line since…”Bayonetta” in 2010 FYI.

With the original (male) Commander Shepard, I had issues with the body sculpt, especially in the shoulder area. Female Shepard does away with those issues, and has a better default face, at least in my opinion. Tali’s no slouch either. A little difficult to stand up by herself due to her feet, but a damn fine figure regardless of that. The sculpt alone is worth the price of admission. By now you all know the drill, $60, best damn video game figures out on the market, etc.

Mass Effect isn’t the only space-based new release from Squenix in stock! The first wave of Halo 4 Play Art Kai figures are in stock, and DAMN, they are impressive looking. Granted they’re a lot more bulkier compared to more Play Art releases, they also meet and maintain the same levels of quality in sculpting, variant parts, paint jobs and articulation their peers posses. Wave 1 consists of both the Master Chief and the Blue Spartan Warrior, and you should definitely expect to see future releases be variants of said Spartans.

Focusing in on Square Enix based on actual Squenix properties, the 2nd wave of Final Fantasy Trading Art Kai figures are out, consisting of Tifa, Tidus and Lighting. I’d make fun of Tidus for a bit, but he comes with both a body that allows him to ride a Chocobo and a face that make him cry. This is both adorable and hilarious to me. Anywho, not much has changed since wave one with the products, with the exception of there maybe being more animals in this wave (Red XIII comes packaged with Tifa, and Tidus obviously with said chocobo). They’ll set you back $20 each, and if they’re anything like the first wave, expect them to fly off the shelves.

I’ll end the article with a slight shift in focus, one not related to Marvel Comics. As of late, Jazzware has begun to corner the market on Cartoon Network based toys. Another wave of Adventure Time figures has hit our shelves, as well as the first wave of figures based on the equally off-beat “Regular Show”. Aside from new spins on Jake and Finn, this series of AT toys is joined by fan favorite characters like The Ice King, Marceline the Vampire Queen and Lumpy Space Princess. All very cool, but the lack of Lemongrab is whack IMO. The Regular Show figures also heavily focus on Rigby and Mordecai, but are forgiven because there are figures that are actually packed with Shudder Shades. It’s amazing what I’ll forgiven when those are involved. Since these are focused on younger audiences, they’re prices cheaper at $10-$20, but if you buy em for yourselves I won’t tell anyone. But you’ll owe me.

I suppose a 2013 preview list should not be written 14 days into year, but I did a lot of traveling over the holidays, and acquired several video games of worth. If anything, SEGA should be held responsible for pushing “Anarchy Reigns” back to this week.

Anywho, 2012 was a shockingly awesome year for collectibles, so hopefully 2013 will continue the trend. We’re a month away from Toy Fair, and 2 months away from c2e2, so some comics and toys new is light. “Some” being the key world here. There’s some things announced in 2012 that still haven’t seen the light yet, so I’ll talk about those!

COMICS:

I’ve poked a ton of fun at DC this past year (for good reasons), but there is some hope for them to acquire some of my cash-money in 2013. First off, Jeff Lemire (Animal Man, Justice League Dark) is taking over “Green Arrow”, which may have cool results. Given the success of “Arrow” on the CW, DC should have a book that’s readable for potential new readers. That and Lemire has put out some great stuff for DC. Lemire’s Rotworld-buddy Scott Snyder has 2 new books coming out from DC as well: a Vertigo maxi-series called “The Wake” with my boy Sean Murphy (Punk Rock Jesus) and a new Superman title with Jim Lee, which I’m fairly certain will be called “Man of Steel” (SYNERGY). Nice to see DC trying to step up as Marvel NOW is in full effect.

Speaking of the House of Ideas, A NEW UNCANNY X-MEN STARTS IN 2013! YES I KNOW THIS IS THE SECOND TIME WE’VE GOTTEN A NEW UNCANNY X-MEN #1 IN 2 YEARS. BUT CHRIS BACHALO IS DRAWING IT! AND FRAZER IRVING TOO! HOPEFULLY CAPSLOCK AND CONVEY HOW EXCITED I AM! (Bendis is on writing duties, which hey cool, but man, those artists). Marvel actually has like hojillion new books announced so far: a new Uncanny X-force, Young Avengers, Nova, Guardians of the Galaxy, and like 3 other books there’s teasing at. And “Age of Ultron” starting this March. And Superior Spider-Man started this past week, so there’s that too.

2013 looks great for the non Big 2 companies too! Dark Horse has Hellboy in Hell rolling on, a Brian Woods’ penned “Star Wars” series, and something I stupid excited for- Gerald Way (My Chemical Romance) and Becky Cloonan’s long awaited “Fabulous Livse of the Killjoys”, launching this Free Comic Day. Image has new series/mini-series being launched like Matt Fraction, Kelly Sue Deconnick, Kieron Giellen, and Paul Pope. I’m fairly certain that’s only the tip of the iceberg though. Not to mention Robert Kirkman’s “Invincible” hits #100 this month.

And not to leave it off the list KaBOOM’s “Adventure Time: Fionna & Cake” mini-series has started this month and it is pretty damn great. You go buy now.

TOYS:

Like I said earlier, details for 2013 toys are still kind of scarce, and we’ll have more info next month. HOWEVER, we should have another wave of both Marvel Universe and Legends dropping this month, featuring the likes of Nova, Hercules, Red She-Hulk, Iron Fist and several more characters more familiar to the public at large. We’ll also see the return of the Marvel Universe 3-packs, consisting of the likes of the West Coast Avengers, the Inhumans, 80s era Uncanny X-men, and the now disbanded Uncanny X-Men Extinction team. Also I imagine we’ll see some toylines based on Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World.

Non-Marvel toys of interest coming out in 2013 consist of a whole slew of Superman (and probably Batman) toys from Mattel and DC, a Kid Icarus figma from Max Factory (I AM EXCITE), a butt-ton of various -Arts figures from Bandai (Gundam, Dragon Ball, Pokemon,) and like seven trillion new Square Enix Playarts Kai figures from the millions of licenses they have. I’m not kidding, Square dropped like 2 new PA Kai figures this past month alone. More on those next week.

2013 is shaping up to be a pretty dope year for collectibles and comics. As for me, I got some cool stuff lined up that I can’t talk about, but will shamelessly plug when I can. Convention-wise, you can stalk me at PAX East, c2e2, Heroescon and New York Comic Con this year, and on twitter @theanarCHris if you want to troll me and disagree with me over everything. FUN FOR ALL!

As many of you know, there’s a new trailer out for new Zack Snyder joint “Man of Steel”, the new Superman movie due out Summer 2013. I was on the fence about the movie initially because I am not a fan of Zack Snyder in general, and there was a lot of buzz of it being “Dark” like the Nolan Bat-flicks. Also it’s an origin story, and we just got through a decade of Smallville, did we really need it in movie form? The trailer reveals a dark, tragic Superman origin story in a world that fears and misunderstands him, to the point where Pa Kent wants him to avoid using his powers. We had that movie before, it was called “Superman Returns” and it not my scene kids. So it seems I’ll be saving myself $14 bucks and stick with Superman origins stories penned by the likes of Grant Morrison( All-Star, Action Comics) and Mark Waid (Birthright). Both are safer bets in my opinion, and are 100% free of slow-mo. And also, did you see that “Pacific Rim” trailer. Flick looks dope as hell!

Now that I’ve done my nerd rant for the day, let’s look into what we go lying around the store, waiting to be bought with your earth dollars. Cartoon Network’s “Adventure Time” is STILL super-popular, and we have a variety of comics, figurines, plushies, role playing props and action figures in stock. Action figures like the image on the left, which is Flynn in a Jake suit. Is that my figure of the year? No of course not. Does it make me laugh? Hell yes. Do we have BMO in stock as well? Yup! Good choice in character imaginary person I’m holding this conversation with!

While these figures are meant for young audiences, much like the show, there’s definitely some appeal to them for the older crowd. Also like the show. They’re well made, and hold up well , as they’re made to be played with.There’s about 2 waves out, and there’s more. The 5″ figures go for about “15, but again, we have a variety of toys in stock of various prices. Check in-store and the website for more info.

Hey look, Marvel Universe figures, I never talk about those! Wave 20 is out, which is 2/3rd re-releases and 3 new figures. Psylocke, Hulk, Beta Ray Bill, Ultimate Spider-Man, Future Foundation Spider-Man and Silver Surfer all return to make up the bulk of this line and are join by Professor X (R.I.P…..again) Jubilee, and Blastaar, the lone villain of the line. The king of the Negative Zone is welcomed here, as his massive figure stands toe-to-toe with some of the bigger MU figures. I’m a fan of it needless to say. The Professor X figure is cool too, as Chuck comes with his classic Shi’ar Wheelchair which you can put him in if you prefer your Xaviers unable to walk. The Jubilee figure is an odd one. It’s her modern post-Vampirism look, but with her plasma energy…wow I can believe I’m complaining about that. Re-reading that sentence makes me feel like I just regained my virginity/ Either way, you now have another slightly underaged girl to pal around with your Wolverine figure who isn’t X-23 or Kitty Pryde. That’s….a win, I’m sure. For the creepers.

Lastly, I know Ro-bits are usually Sophie (aka Loran’s) area, but she reviewed that awesome Avengers Hawkeye figure earlier this year, so consider this belated revenge (Hawkguy is my turf dammit!). This is the Super Robot Chogokin Megazord figure. It is rad. That is all you need to know. We have it, come for it now. It is worth the money we are selling it for.

To celebrate the release of the new 3D stop-animated film PARANORMAN, from the company behind the Academy Award-nominated animated feature Coraline, were giving away 10 prize packs of movie memorabilia including: a pair of run of engagement passes to see the movie at a NYC theatre, a copy of the novel and a pair of “zombie slippers,” just like the ones worn by Norman in the movie!

HOLY CRAP, WE’RE MOVING APPARENTLY! There, consider that an early reminder. I’ll try to not to mention it again until after it happens and grand-opening things have been announced.

Anywho, happy post 4th of July everyone, hope you all enjoyed the holiday/”Amazing Spider-Man,” which I thought was neat. Definitely not a perfect film, nor as good as “The Avengers“, it could have been a ton worse. Remember “Spider-Man 3”? Yeah…..that, and Emma’s Gwen was 10000X better than Kristen’s Mary Jane. That being said, it’s July, which means one thing. SAN DIEGO COMIC CON? WILL I BE THERE, DELIVERING ALL OF THE LATEST NEWS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS? NOPE, CAN’T AFFORD IT. WILL I LIST A BUNCH OF SWEET EXCLUSIVES THAT I WANT, AND WILL HOPEFULLY MAKE IT TO OUR STORE LIKE LAST YEAR? YUP, SURE WILL!

Let’s start off with DC Comics. Obviously they’ll have a lot to offer, what with “Dark Knight Rises“, the New 52, Before Watchmen, and their Cartoon Network programming. Expect to see a Gotham Siren/Polly Pocket set, a Tiny Titans figurine box set, and a plethora of exclusive DKR toys. What I’m most excited for is on the left: the new line of Convention Exclusive 3.75″action figures from DC Collections (formerly known as DC Direct) featuring 2Green Lanterns, and the much taller Death figure from the same company. Both will retail for about $25, but given how Kyle Rayner, Kilowog, and Death are ALL fan-favorites, they’re definitely a steal at that price compared to how much they’ll be going for post-show. Plus the Lanterns are in scale with the Marvel Universe figures, which means Kyle and Kilowog can team up with a different breed of Guardians… Continue reading →

It seems that with every recent Transformers production, there has been that one character that the fans just love. It could be based on how they are on-screen or how they’re played off in their character bio. A great case of the former is Blitzwing in Transformers Animated. I don’t think anyone was expecting a crazy German ‘con with multiple personalities. For the latter, I’d say Bonecrusher from the movies: a ‘con of pure hatred. Too bad he died in seconds. For Transformers: Prime, it is without a doubt Knock Out; a totally fabulous, crazy Decepticon. Surely the show’s most popular character will have a great toy, right? Right?

Well, I hate to say it, but this is probably the worst Transformers I’ve purchased in quite awhile.

I’m not sure if I’ve stated this before, but I love Decepticons as fast cars. To me it makes more sense for the Autobots to have like, civil protection vehicles like military and police stuff, and the Decepticons to have stuff that’s more “dirty”, so in terms of his vehicle mode, Knock Out excels. His weapon just… oddly hangs off the side however.

But the big issue here is how much smaller deluxes are now. He’s only barely bigger than a Scout, and is absolutely dwarfed by a Classics Deluxe! And to think they cost more now…

Now, I don’t mind the figures getting smaller when the quality gets higher. Well, the transformation for Knock Out is where things start to get messy. His transformation has no real rhyme or reason to it, namely in the top half.

And in robot mode… yeah, I kinda had to be told this was Knock Out before I realized it was him. His robot mode is just too… lanky, whereas in the show he has a lot more bulk and depth to him. While the mainline TF:P toys haven’t really been works of art compared to the First Editions, but I can only imagine how much worse he would have looked compared to a First Edition.

His face isn’t that great, on top of it all. It feels so… flat, and the silver just doesn’t help it. It needs more snark. Continue reading →

Ahh, Ratchet. What a great Transformers character. Be it the original Ratchet who was [supposed to be] a crazy party animal that almost flunked out of med school, or the modern interpretation that’s more of an ornery old war veteran, he’s always had a place in my heart. Save for the movie version, anyway. As much as I liked the old portrayal, I’ve taken a liking to his cranky new rendition. The Autobots always have to have one old guy on their team, and I think Ratchet’s good for that role. It makes him more like Doctor McCoy.

Ratchet’s vehicle mode is an ambulance (what else?) that’s made up of… quite a lot of panels. Also he has no lightbar. Bleh. I hate panel-formers. The mode looks good enough, and there aren’t many color matching problems. I just can’t seem to get all the panels aligned properly. Oh well.

Like Wheeljack, he has his own STABCAR mode! This time with knives. It’s not as cool, honestly. I’m also not entirely sure where the knives are supposed to go in this mode? I think they’re supposed to go in the doors, but I can’t find a tab for them to peg into.

Ratchet’s transformation is much more complex than one would think, involving a lot of parts turning around and sliding unlike most other toys. The forearms are very panel-y but I like the end result. I always think I’m going to break the hinges on the back leg armor by accident. Also, the head springs up with a great automorph gimmick. Continue reading →

I wasn’t too big on the design for Megatron in Transformers Prime originally. It just felt like a shameless rehash of his design from the first movie, only scarier. But well, Frank Welker’s performance as him really sold me on it. Heck, I didn’t even recognize him at first. It’s much better than the voice he used in the games for the live-action movies, that’s for sure.

In vehicle mode, Megatron is a… thing. Okay, I usually don’t mind Cybertronian alt-modes but god, this thing is just weird. It’s like Megatron tried to scan a Klingon Bird of Prey and got distracted and scanned a pile of metal halfway into it. I just can’t get over the exposed head in this mode. It’s too silly even for me. Everything IS quite stable in this mode, though. Many of the parts peg into other parts nicely and securely.

Megatron’s transformation drives me nuts. But not in the bad way, I guess. It’s that good kind of complex that’ll actually stump you. Either way, he has way too many hinged parts. They really clash against each other and I’m always worried I’m gonna break one of them off.

Despite all that, though, holy crap is this robot mode menacing. All the glowing translucent purple plastic looks so good here, and I really wish purple showed up better on my camera. It’s like he has Dark Energon flowing right through his body. His plastic is even textured, too, making him even feel like a crazy, war-mongering Decepticon general. Unfortunately, as cool as the textured plastic is, the gray color just doesn’t do it for me. It feels a little too light, though the dark color in the animation may just be due to the lighting conditions in the show. Continue reading →

And we’re back FP Faithful, with possible the most bi-polar article to date! Today we’ll be looking at the plethora of awesome new merchandise we’ve received based on the hit Cartoon Network show “Adventure Time”, as well as a review of the newest Figma, Guts from the hyper-violent anime/manga “Berserk”! We’ll lead off with Guts first, as there’s less ground to cover, and because this is a sick-as-hell figure!

The “Berserk” franchise has been around forever, with Dark Horse comics releasing the manga for a few years, and got a 26 episode series from the early 2000s, which was a solid adaption for it’s time. We also got a decent selection of toys and video game back then as well, but not much has been released since 2002/2003. With a new series of movies hitting Japanese theaters this year, Max Factory has decided it was time to release some cool figures, WHICH I AM SOOOO OKAY WITH, as it’s a nice departure from the usual school girls that most of the series has consisted of. The Black Sword’s is EXTREMELY well sculpted, as the detailing on this figure is nuts. And it being a Figma means it’s fairly articulated as well, and it comes with a plethora of accessories to ensure certain familiar poses from the series can be recreated. Aside from the various joints and trademark Figma stand, Guts also comes with his famous massive sword “The Dragon Slayer”, and a variant cannon arm/wrist thingie. Guts’ cape is also removable to sheath his sword on his back. It’s retails for about $50, which makes sense considering all you’re getting. We have extremely limited quantities of the figure in, so if you want him, pick him up ASAP. Besides, by the time Figma Griffin comes out, Guts will probably be impossible to fine.

Alright, so let’s move onto something a little more family-friendly. “Adventure Time” is one of those rare animated series that works on a time of levels, with a back-story that may or may not involve a nuclear war. I think it’s rad, and advise you to pick up the DVDs and the awesome ongoing comic series written by Ryan North of Dinosaur Comics fame and published by Boom!. That being said, if you want something a little more collectible, Forbidden Planet and Jazware has you covered.

First there’s the Slamcows, a cool modern update of those old wrestling buddies from back in the day. You have your choice of the main characters, Jake the Dog and Flynn the Human, and each 20″ plush has 5 electronic sayings. They go for about $35-$40 each. If you’re looking for something a little cheaper and smaller, there’s a selection of 2″ 2-packs, featuring a few variants of Jake and Flynn, as well as supporting characters like the Ice King, Marceline the Vampire, and MY personal favorite, Lumpy Space Princess. These go for less than $10 each.

If your looking for a cool role-playing (or cosplaying for at least several of our readers!) prop, we also have Finn’s 24″ sword, which is a fairly solid replica on the cheap. That sells for about $30. We also have a variety of Adventure Time magnet sets, keychains, and shirts. The bottom line is that FP NYC has a ton of great Adventure Time stuff in stock, so if you want it, come get it!